


A Year of Drabbles – 2014

by lirin



Series: Economist-Prompted Drabbles [1]
Category: Alvin Fernald - Clifford B. Hicks, Blandings Castle - P. G. Wodehouse, Get Smart (TV), Macdonald Hall - Gordon Korman, The Monuments Men (2014), The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
Genre: Gen, unconnected drabbles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-07 21:10:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1124422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A drabble a week for any fandom that catches my fancy, prompted with words plucked from the pages of a weekly periodical.</p><p>1. "From the Channel to London" (Scarlet Pimpernel): Percy Blakeney acts the fop again.<br/>2. "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (Macdonald Hall): Christmas festivities courtesy of Macdonald Hall.<br/>3. "We Have You Surrounded" (Get Smart): How will Siegfried and Starker escape?<br/>4. "Broccoli and Bullets" (Blandings Castle): The efficient Baxter just can't catch a break.<br/>5. "The Ledger" (Monuments Men): Claire had a project. Now James Granger does. Drabble pair.<br/>6. "11:50 pm, April 28, Riverton, IN" (Alvin Fernald): Spoilery tag to <i>Mayor for a Day</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Scarlet Pimpernel - From the Channel to London

**Author's Note:**

> _This ran a bit aground in 2014, but instead of trying to catch up, I'm calling this done and starting afresh in 2015 with slightly altered rules._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> So I got a free subscription to _The Economist_ (from RewardSurvey.com, which is apparently at least a bit more legit than they look) that started the first week of 2014; and writing my Yuletide fic made me realize how much I’ve missed writing fanfic as I’ve been sick these last couple years. So, the closest thing I’m making to a New Year’s Resolution this year: I will write one drabble each week, based on a couple words taken from that issue of _The Economist_.
> 
> The rules I came up with for myself: I will take the 20th word on each of pages 17, 32, 39, and 56. Only article text counts; no headings. If the page is an ad or otherwise does not have twenty acceptable words on it, go to the following page; repeat if necessary. Anything with spaces on both sides, even numbers and proper nouns, counts as one of these 20 words; however, if the 20th word is a number, a proper noun, or under 6 letters, the option is available of either selecting that word or selecting the next word going forward that fits none of these descriptions. (However, if the 20th word is under 4 letters long, it is automatically disqualified and only the latter option is available.) From these four to eight words, pick any two I wish and use them as a prompt to write a drabble in any fandom. The words do not have to be used in the drabble (although they can); they are simply the theme.
> 
> Those are the only official rules. Unofficially, I want to avoid repeating any fandom too many times, and I want to try to write for some fandoms I’ve read fic for but never written any as well as some that I’ve never read or written fic for...but we’ll see how that goes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy Blakeney acts the fop again.
> 
> Jan 4-10, 2014 [they/disparate, August/auditors, ~~use~~ /return, ~~out~~ /wheezes]: _return, disparate_

Sir Percy Blakeney is all smiles, clothes perfect and cravat elaborate as he proffers one of his droll rhymes.

He keeps popping out of town and then reappearing at one or another social occasion—Lady Satterthwaite’s ball, or the last performance of _Stratonice_. Sometimes, as now, he is accompanied by Lady Blakeney. Always, including now, he is a perfect gentleman and a complete fop.

From across the room, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes and Lord Anthony Dewhurst watch Blakeney recite. “One would never guess that twenty-four hours ago, he was wearing a ragged dress while having his bloody arm bandaged,” Ffoulkes murmurs.


	2. Macdonald Hall - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas festivities courtesy of Macdonald Hall.
> 
> Jan 11-17, 2014 [always, ~~is~~ /unlikely, ~~up~~ /started, weapons]: _unlikely weapons_

“This is a very bad idea,” Boots whispered as he hauled the pine tree up the stairs.

“Are you going to let Scrimmage’s claim victory? Are you going to let them superglue mistletoe to every transom and window frame in the school, without an answer? Macdonald Hall will not be—” Bruno’s quiet but impassioned speech was stopped by a mouthful of pine needles as they misnavigated a turn in the hall.

“I’m all for revenge on Scrimmage’s,” muttered Wilbur Hackenschleimer from behind a second eight-foot pine. “I just don’t think exploding Christmas trees is the best way to achieve it.”


	3. Get Smart - We Have You Surrounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How will Siegfried and Starker escape?
> 
> Jan 18-24, 2014 [broadly, ~~the~~ /effect, ~~a~~ /encircle, candidates]: _broadly encircle_

“This is CONTROL, we have you surrounded!” came the announcement, recognizable as Maxwell Smart’s voice even over the megaphone.

Siegfried peered through the warehouse’s grimy window. “They appear to only have four or five men. And they are very far away and spread out. Get in the car.”

“Good idea!” Starker exclaimed. “When they close in, they will be running so fast that they won’t see us until we burst past them in our racecar, honking, be-be-beep, be-be-beep!”

“Zis is KAOS! Ve do not ‘be-be-be’ here!” Siegfried replied, slamming the car door. “But Shmart will certainly run right past us.”


	4. Blandings Castle - Broccoli and Bullets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The efficient Baxter just can't catch a break.
> 
> Jan 25-31, 2014 [ ~~a~~ /provocative, ~~in~~ /forced, Lebanon/bullet, units/produce]: _produce, bullet_  
>  (Oh my goodness, Wodehousian prose is _not_ suited to drabble format. My first draft of this was 134 words.)

All was quiet in the Blandings library. The books sat unmoving on their shelves; Lord Emsworth scratched away at a letter; the flooring sat without creaking or complaint; the window—

The window was unaware of this pact of silence, or perhaps chose wilfully to reject it, for it shattered loudly as a cabbage entered from outside. This was followed by a head of broccoli and assorted leafy greens.

“Baxter locked himself out again?” the Earl muttered, writing placidly.

This response to the verdurous incursion was apparently lacking, for the little remaining glass began to disappear as bullets followed the broccoli.


	5. Monuments Men - The Ledger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble pair: Claire had a project. Now James Granger does.
> 
> Feb 1-7, 2014 [games/simple, projects, ~~the~~ /democratic, ~~to~~ /tackle]: _simple projects_

If she had realized the risk when she started, would she make the same choice? Claire Simone doesn’t know. The ledger had seemed so small in the beginning, just words and numbers, recording a few paintings not yet lost to history. Not nearly as much as Peter and his comrades were achieving with bullets and dynamite. But as the entries redoubled, as the Nazis’ thefts increased, she couldn’t stop. Not when it took every moment she could spare and more; not when Stahl suspected and threatened her. And when it was over, she knew the ledger was something worth having.

James Granger knows Claire has information worth having. The question is how to convince her he is worthy to have it. If he doesn’t, almost his whole mission to Paris will have been in vain, so he can’t stop now. He woos her with careful words and grand actions. When she brings out the ledger, all he’s spent the last months working for seems so small in her hands. But then he meets the paintings and statues that stand within its pages. If he’d known when he started how much there was he could rescue, could he have tried harder?


	6. Alvin Fernald - 11:50 pm, April 28, Riverton, IN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilery tag to _Mayor for a Day_.
> 
> Feb 8-14, 2014 [ ~~the~~ /article, ~~in~~ /office, politician, that/categorisation]: _office, politician_  
>  (I can't believe nobody's written fic for these books before now! Along with Danny Dunn and Henry Reed, they are such an essential part of my childhood.)

Shoie and Daphne are holed up in the mayor’s office—where they’re probably not supposed to be, even if for the next 10 minutes they’re still the City Collector and the mayor’s secretary—while Alvin is off on some wild bus chase with Speedy and Worm. The Pest looks none the worse for wear for being held hostage earlier that day. As if to prove it, she makes up a poem as they wait for Alvin.  
 _“Mayor Massey really was a jerk,_  
But Alvin had him spotted.  
The rotten mayor and his clerk,  
Now in jail they will be rotted!”


End file.
